Intellectual Contexts I: Intercultural Transactions
Week 10: Translating non-standard Language
OUTLINE
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what is non-standard language?
regional languages and dialects
postcolonial or World Literature in French (Littérature-monde en français)
language, identity and culture
the relevance of official language regulations
the translator as mediator
analysis of non-standard language
approaches to translating non-standard French
READING FOR WEEK 10 LECTURE
Collie, Joanne. “Patois and Power: Translating Non-Standard Languages.” Rencontres. Ed. Danielle
Tranquille and Soorya Nirsimloo-Gayan. Moka: Mahatma Gandhi Institute, 2000. 175-188.
Collins, Georgina. “The Translator as Mediator – Interpreting ‘Non-Standard’ French in Senegalese
Women’s Literature.” Lost in Translation – PEER English: The Journal of New Critical
Thinking. Leicester: Leicester UP, Oct. 2010. 98-113.
Garane, Jeanne. “Littérature-monde and the Space of Translation, or, Where is Littérature-monde?”
Transnational French Studies: Postcolonialism and Littérature-monde. Eds. Alec G
Hargreaves et al. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2010. 227-239.
Copies of these texts will be given in advance of the class.
FURTHER READING
As well as texts recommended in week 1, consider:
Batchelor, Kathryn. Decolonizing Translation: Francophone African Novels in English Translation.
Manchester: St. Jerome, 2009.
Brisset, Annie. Sociocritique de la traduction: Théâtre et laterite au Québec (1968-1988).
Longueuil: Le Préambule, 1990.
de Souza, Pascale, and H. Adlai Murdoch. “Migrations and Métissage in French Caribbean
Literature.” Journal of Caribbean Literatures 4.2 (2003).
Fanon, Frantz. Les damnés de la terre. Paris: Gallimard, 1961.Gyasi, Kwaku A. “The African Writer
as Translator: Writing African Languages through French.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 16.2
(2003): 143-159.
---. The Francophone African Text: Translation and the Postcolonial Experience. New York: Peter
Lang, 2006.
Manessy, Gabriel and Paul Wald. Le français en Afrique noire. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1984.
Simon, Sherry. Le traffic des language: Traduction et culture dans la literature québécois. Montreal:
Boréal, 1994.
Syrotinski, Michael. “Francophone Writing Outside France.” The Oxford Guide to Literature in
English Translation. Ed, Peter France. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. 300-303.
Woodham, Kathryn. “Linguistic Decolonisation and Recolonisation? Fluent Translation Strategies in
the Context of Francophone African Literature.” Writing Back in/and Translation. Ed. Raoul
J. Granqvist. New York: Peter Lang, 2006. 119-128.
Compiled by: Dr Georgina Collins
September 2011